Monday, March 30, 2015

SUNY Maritime Team Race Regatta

Six team members travelled to the east coast once again for another team race regatta last weekend! Alex Ramos, Thomas Etheridge, Chris Cyr, Mike Gapuz, Lane Tobin, and Sarah Sloan arrived at the Danilek's home in Stamford, CT shortly before 10 PM Friday night (a record-breaking arrival time for an intercollegiate regatta). They were treated to pizza and stories from Mr. and Mrs. Danilek's time on the team before going to bed to prepare for a full day of racing.

After a quit stop at the Shop Rite before leaving Stamford, the team arrived at SUNY Maritime shortly before 9 AM and rigged their boats under cloudy skies. The wind was blowing and the temperature stayed upsettingly close to freezing all of Saturday with a constant stream of falling snow, but an entire round robin was completed as well as the first three flights of a second. The team returned to Stamford cold and exhausted, but were greeted with lasagna straight from the oven and everyone rejoiced. (Except for Lane, who went home with her parents to Richfield. Poor Lane, we hope she had a good time anyways.)

Ten hours of sleep later, the team awoke to even colder temperatures and snow on the ground Sunday. But the Weather Gods were smiling down upon us and the sun was shining at SUNY. Six flights were sailed to finish the second round robin, the most exciting of which occurred between Michigan and UC Santa Barbara. Immediately before the start, the wind died almost completely. The current was working against us and thankfully Alex Ramos had enough foresight to maintain full speed the entire starting sequence, and crossed the starting line 15 seconds before the other five boats. The rest of the race was a thrilling combination of a spaced out fleet, missing marks, sailing upwind to reach marks, and quoting Awesome Aussie Skiffs to pass the time downwind. Michigan got the 1 and 2, but the real winner of the race was Ian from UCSB for getting a red flag for paddling around the upwind mark.

Overall it was a successful weekend and we made it back to Ann Arbor before midnight.